Fundamentalism
While digging through and sorting out Material, and looking for the right stuff to create content with (I’m a slave of the machine). I encountered old Fotos from a Foto-session that friends of mine did with and for me. We took Pictures of works out of my first “Art-Project”.
In addition, I had an inspiring talk with Daniel Perez Whitaker about his current goals and a very interesting new Interview series he plans to do. We talked about many things but what was left with me was a sense of a Personal necessity to back to my artistic roots and fundaments. What moves me? How do I create? How do I approach my Projects?
For the first 10 Years of my career, I was mainly teaching and showing my art in every possible way. Today I know that I was only training, mastering skills, and figuring out my path in and around Art. It’s not only the craftmanship per se that needs endless practice but also how to speak about my art, how to present it, and how to take it seriously but not too personally. But I never focused solemnly on painting, there was just so much other stuff to learn…
And then came “The God Project”: It was after a long break and after experimenting with new styles (abstract) but also from very encouraging encounters that I started to look again at going back to my roots and painting people or Life painting as it is usually known. I attended open drawing sessions and was getting the hang of it again but it was too confined to structural and not deep enough. And then in a talk with a Lover, in bed late at night we talked about the concept of God (as you do). She said that for her God was a “big black Woman, with big heavy breasts”. I don’t know what moved me so much in that sentence but there and then I knew that I had to paint that “God”. It wasn’t a challenge calling a jest or a goal setting. It was more a child-like open-hearted decision: this is what I’m going to do!
Secured with my experience with approaching models for my classes and knowing that I had a good reputation around that topic. I decided to approach three Women in my network that fitted the personality and physique needed for the part. I got a very fast Yes from one of them and we set up a time to meet in person to talk details.
In our Talk a few weeks later she told me she was in her first stages of pregnancy. For me and for her that was a big confirming “go ahead” sign for the project. We set some dates for the painting sessions and decided that we will take as near as possible to her due date.
I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the poses to be like; God was standing with all her capacity looking forward, powerful and mighty!
On the day of our first session, she came in and said that she can’t stand for too long and would like to sit or lie down. There and then I realized that it was my time to learn and listen to what “God” wants and do as I was told. What followed was around 5 months of regular sessions of “God” coming into my Livingroom taking her close off, resting on my couch, and cracking jokes. I was able to create numerous works, experimenting with materials and flexing my craftmanship. The God Project brought out a softer side of me that I didn’t know was there. Some work out of this series was eventually shown in a small museum and are very dear to me since then.
This Project set some premises for my artistic work after that and gave me a glimpse of what is possible for me. Working on the God project was exhilarating a playful but also very serious in the scenes where we both had a look at our humanity and our fundaments. Some years after in a talk I gave about my art, one of the guests said that when I talked about this project I sound like a “fundamentalist of Art”. This stuck with me I liked it.
